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Of
all the words of Jesus in this passage, probably the most significant are
His words announcing, “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified”
(12:23). Throughout the Gospel of John that moment has been on the horizon,
but now it has arrived. It has been triggered by a series of events. When
Christ raised Lazarus from the dead it kicked into high gear the opposition
to Jesus from the religious leaders. As a result, “Jesus no longer moved
about publicly among the Jews” (11:54). He stayed out of public view
until His entry into Jerusalem, which stirred up awareness of Jesus’
activity and His presence. But it was the seemingly harmless inquiry from
some Greeks that tipped the scales. Immediately upon hearing that some Greeks
wanted to meet with Him, Jesus announced, “the hour has come.”
What was so pivotal about that inquiry? Most likely it was an indication of
how widespread the news of Jesus’ activities had become. Presumably
the chain of events could be halted if Jesus went completely into hiding,
but if He continued His public ministry, He knew His death was imminent.
As
we listen to the text we get a sense of the genuine turmoil Christ was experiencing.
Although He will tell His disciples in just a few days, “Do not let
your hearts be troubled,” (14:1) He confesses here, “my heart
is troubled” (12:27). He knows His options are saving His life or being
a savior. He wrestles with the weight of that choice, but decides against
self-preservation. Simply put, He chooses in that moment to lay down His life.
Jesus
makes several references to His death in this passage, all of which seem to
be somewhat coded. His hour has come; a kernel of wheat must fall into the
ground and die; the Father’s name will be glorified; He will be lifted
up. All speak of His death, yet all seem to shield His disciples somewhat
from the full impact of His words.
When
He called on the Father to glorify His name, and the voice from heaven affirmed
that it will be glorified, the crowd was not sure what had happened. Spiritual
blindness has been an issue earlier in this gospel; to that is now added spiritual
deafness, the inability to recognize the voice of God.
This
passage gives us a window through which to view and interpret suffering and
death. Not the suffering brought on by things like cancer or earthquakes,
but the suffering we choose to endure. Suffering that comes when we choose
against self-preservation. And not the death that comes tragically and unexpectedly,
but the death to self, death to ambition that is chosen in order that someone
else might have a more abundant life. Our instincts toward self-preservation
are so high, at times, that we have a hard time taking seriously the idea
that we might be called to do anything else. Our instinct to avoid the path
of suffering and death is borne not only out of our aversion to pain, but
also out of our rationalization that we’re more effective if we’re
healthy and happy.
Christ
directly challenges the mindset that has self-preservation as its highest
goal. If self-preservation controls us, He says, we’ll end up losing
our life. It’s only when we’re willing to give our life away that
we’ll truly have life for now and for eternity. Saving our life cannot
be our ultimate goal.
We
are faced with the choice of willingly giving our lives away, or attempting
to clutch our lives, mistakenly thinking we can thereby save our lives. The
human heart is remarkably capable of deception, however, so we say we are
“willing” to give our lives away without ever really doing so.
For most of us it will never be a case of facing a firing squad and being
given one last chance to renounce Christ before we are blindfolded and shot.
It is the daily choices we make that reflect whether we’re entrenched
in self-preservation, or whether we genuinely give our lives away, day-by-day.
(For
the full manuscript of this sermon go to www.preachersmagazine.org and click
on “Sermons”)
This
is a pivotal text in John’s Gospel, much like the Mark 8 passage we
considered on the second Sunday in Lent. With this passage, however, we have
to “draw out” some of the intensity because the language of the
text does not cause our ears to perk up quite like Mark’s language of
cross-bearing.
To
get at the intensity of these words we have to be able to set the stage somewhat
by tracing the significance of “the hour” in John’s Gospel.
It’s a theme that has been woven in and out of the Gospel, and suddenly
Christ announces here that the hour has come.
A second crucial issue in developing a sermon from this passage is making the connection with listeners. This is more than just a narrative “about Jesus” and the pivotal decision He made at this point in the Gospel. It’s also about the choices we make, the lives we live. It’s about whether we heed the words of Jesus when He says, “whoever serves me must follow me” (12:26).